Since the first discovery of
cucurbit yellow vine disease (CYVD) in Texas and Oklahoma in 1988, its cause
has been a mystery. Now, a multidisciplinary team of federal government and
university researchers has discovered a key missing piece in that puzzle.

The researchers have identified and characterized the bacterial culprit that
causes CYVD and have fingered squash bugs as the primary carriers. The squash
bug, Anasa tristis, has long been the scourge of gardeners and farmers,
though never before implicated in transmitting a plant disease. The bacterium
inhabits plant tissue called phloem. This was the first time a
phloem-inhabiting bacterium has been implicated in a cucurbit crop disease.

Since November 2000, the scientists have acquired conclusive evidence that
the squash bug can act as a vector of the bacterium that kills cucurbits. They
confirmed their findings using a highly specific and sensitive DNA technique
called polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

CYVD occurs frequently in squash, pumpkin, watermelon and cantaloupe, but it
has not appeared in cucumbers. Symptoms of this disease are distinctly
different from other vine declines of cucurbits. Affected plants show leaf
yellowing, phloem discoloration and plant collapse.

Although first found in the Southern Plains, CYVD has now been confirmed in
Tennessee and Massachusetts. Scientists speculate that misdiagnosis may be the
reason the disease has not been found in other cucurbit-growing areas.

The squash bug is particularly hungry when it emerges from overwintering, so
the scientists intend to exploit that behavior to control the bug and perhaps
CYVD. They have found that using trap crops--small plantings of squash on the
perimeters of melon fields--concentrates the pest insects in the squash, where
they can be controlled with minimal insecticidal applications.